Gameday Blog: Bruins vs. Penguins

Forty minutes are in the books here at the Garden where the
Penguins lead the B's by a score of 4-2.

Boston knotted things up 18 seconds into the middle frame. David
Krejci made a gorgeous, backhanded pass in the slot to Milan Lucic,
who snapped one past Johnson to make it 2-2.

A penalty fest ensued in the closing minutes of the period,
starting with a two-minute charging call on Dan Paille for his hit
on Matt Niskanen in the corner.

Just nine seconds later, Rich Peverley went off for a bogus
high-sticking call, as Kris Letang flipped his head back well after
Peverley's stick made contact with his shoulder.

His antics gave the Pens a two-man power play and James Neal
tallied to make it 3-2.

Andy Ference then dropped the gloves with Neal on the next
shift, as No. 21 took umbrage with a hit by Neal on Johnny
Boychuk.

With the Pens still on the PP, Sidney Crosby notched his second
goal of the game to make it 4-2 with 1:01 to go.

FIRST INTERMISSION

SCORE
PIT - 2
BOS - 1

SHOTS
PIT - 10
BOS - 13

Despite havign squat to play for, the Bruins are hanging in
there against the hungry Penguins. The B's trail 2-1.

Pittsbugh curiously started Brent Johnson, who didn't have to do
much despite facing 13 shots in the opening frame.

Boston started Marty Turco, who allowed a couple silly looking
goals. The first came off the stick of Sidney Crosby, who scored
for the first time in nearly five years in Boston.

The second came off of Paul Martin (I almost typed Matt Martin,
but he plays for the Isles), who had the puck bounce off of his
hand/upper-body and past the goal to make it 2-0.

Thankfully Boston responded with a pretty sick backhanded strike
from Benoit Pouliot, who roofed one over Johnson's left shoulder to
make it 2-1.

Pittsbugh out-hit the B's by an 18-8 margin.

PREGAME NOTES

KRUG TO MAKE NHL DEBUT: Bruins defenseman Torey Krug will make
his NHL
debut tonight. The Hobey Baker finalist was signed by the Bruins
as a
free agent out of Michigan State on March 25.

CARON, MCQUAID OUT: Bruins forward Jordan Caron will miss
tonight’s
game with flu-like symptoms, while Adam McQuaid will miss his
third
straight game due to an eye injury suffered in the B’s/Caps
game on
Thursday, March 29.

SPOONER TO PROVIDENCE: Bruins prospect Ryan Spooner will join
the
Providence Bruins on Wednesday, April 4. Spooner's Sarnia Sting
were
eliminated in the OHL Playoffs by the Saginaw Spirit last week
four
games to two. During his 2010-11 campaign, Spooner tallied 29
goals and
37 assists for 66 points in 57 OHL games split between Sarnia
and
Kingston. He was originally drafted by the Bruins in the second
round
(45th overall) of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

PENS NOTEBOOK: At 24 years old, Sidney Crosby is one point
shy ofpassing Jean Pronovost for fifth place on Pittsburgh’s
all timescoring list. The two are currently tied at 603
points… Evgeni Malkinand James Neal's 87 combined goals are the most by any
teammates in theNHL...The Penguins have five different players (Malkin,
Neal, Staal,Dupuis and Kunitz) with 20+ goals, which ties them with the
ChicagoBlackhawks for the second most, behind only the Bruins, who
feature sixdifferent players with 20+ goals (Bergeron, Seguin,
Marchand, Kelly,Lucic and Krejci)... Pascal Dupuis will be looking to extend
his NHLseason high 14-game point streak (9-10=19)
tonight.